subjugate

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English subiugat(e), subjugat(e) (“made submissive; obedient”), the past participle of subiugaten, subjugaten (“to conquer; to subdue”),^[1] from Latin subiugātus, subjugātus (“subjugated”), the perfect passive participle of subiugō, subjugō (“to make subject, subjugate”),^[2] from sub- (prefix meaning ‘under’) + iugō, jugō (“to join; to yoke”) (from iugum (“collar for a horse; yoke for cattle”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to tie together, join, yoke”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Doublet of yoke.

The noun is derived from the adjective.^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbd͡ʒʊɡət/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbd͡ʒəɡət/
• Hyphenation: sub‧jug‧ate

subjugate (not comparable)

1. Forced into submission; subjugated.
   • 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Verbes”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio ccclxxix, recto, column 2; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:

     For al their hye mynde they be now ſubiugate: […]

   • 1612 (indicated as 1611), Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Lanca-shire”, in The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine: Presenting an Exact Geography of the Kingdomes of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Iles Adioyning: […], London: […] [William Hall] and are to be solde by John Sudbury & Georg[e] Humble, […], →OCLC, book I (The British Ilands, […]), paragraph 5, page 75, column 1:

     After the Romans, the Saxons brought it [Lancashire] vnder their protection, and held it for a part of their Northumbrian Kingdome, till it vvas firſt made ſubiugate to the Inuaſion of the Danes, and then conquered by the victorious Normans, vvhoſe poſterities from thence are branched further into England.

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, “The Old Woman”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, 1st book (Sowing), page 96:

     […] Could it be, that the whole earthly course of one so gentle, good, and self-denying, was subjugate to such a wretch as that!

   • 1915 September 30, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Man’s World”, in The Rainbow, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, published 1915, →OCLC, page 362:

     Her heart was so black and tangled in the teaching, her personal self was shut in prison, abolished, she was subjugate to a bad, destructive will.

   • 2010, James M. Volo, A History of War Resistance in America, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, →ISBN, page 17:

     Each nationalist struggle assumed the complexion of a Communist versus non-Communist conflict rather than one between a colonial imperium and a subjugate indigenous population intent on their independence.

subjugate (plural subjugates)

1. (rare) A person forced into submission; a subject.
   • 1907, John J[ames] Van Nostrand, chapter 3, in Prefatory Lessons in a Mechanical Philosophy (Nature’s Legal Code): The Philosophy of the Home, Chicago, Ill.: [T]he author […], →OCLC, page 15:

     [T]he home-loving Phillipino succumbed—the independent agent, under the influence of the "final cry," became the subjugate.

From Late Middle English subiugate, subjugaten (“to conquer; to subdue”),^[1] from Latin subiugātus, subjugātus (“subjugated”): see further at etymology 1. The verb is attested slightly later than the adjective.^[3]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbd͡ʒʊɡeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbd͡ʒəˌɡeɪt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sub‧jug‧ate

subjugate (third-person singular simple present subjugates, present participle subjugating, simple past and past participle subjugated) (transitive)

2. To forcibly impose obedience, servitude, or submission upon (a country, a people, etc.).

   Synonyms: enthrall, subdue, underyoke, vanquish

   • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 438:

     O fav'rite Virgin, that haſt vvarm'd the Breaſt, / VVhoſe ſov'reign Dictates ſubjugate the Eaſt!

   • 1782, William Cowper, “Hope”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 151:

     From infancy through childhood's giddy maze, / Frovvard at ſchool, and fretful in his plays, / The puny tyrant burns to ſubjugate / The free republic of the vvhip-gig ſtate.

   • 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “The City of Brass. [Night 576.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume VI, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 115:

     At this the Emir marvelled beyond measure and said, "Glory be to God who subjugateth His creatures to the dominion of Death!"

   • 1915 September 30, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “The Man’s World”, in The Rainbow, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, published 1915, →OCLC, page 382:

     So the battle went on till her heart was sick. She had several more boys to subjugate before she could establish herself.

   • 2002, Farhad Dalal, “Peeking into the Consulting Room”, in Race, Colour and the Processes of Racialization: New Perspectives from Group Analysis, Psychoanalysis and Sociology, Hove, East Sussex; New York, N.Y.: Brunner-Routledge, →ISBN, paragraph 6, page 78:

     [I]nstead of homogeneity, we see powerful asymmetries – men subjugating women, whites subjugating blacks, Christians subjugating Jews, Jews subjugating Arabs, and so on.

3. To make (someone or something) subordinate to another person or thing; to subordinate.
   • [1589?], Cutbert Curry-knaue [pseudonym; Thomas Nashe], An Almond for a Parrat, or Cutbert Curry-knaues Almes. […], [London]: […] [Eliot’s Court Press], →OCLC, folio 9, verso:

     [H]e wil needes haue ſubiects, before he can ſubiugate his affections, and couets the office of a commander, before he hath learned to ſtoupe to the admonitions of his elders, […]

   • c. 1608–1613, Nathan Field, John Fletcher, “Four Playes, or Morall Representations, in One”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, page 28, column 1:

     [H]is ſoul hath ſubjugated Martius ſoul: […]

   • 1667, Robert Boyle, “Free Considerations about Subordinate Formes, as They are Wont to be Maintain’d by Divers Learned Modernes”, in The Origine of Formes and Qualities, (According to the Corpuscular Philosophy,) Illustrated by Considerations and Experiments, […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] H[enry] Hall printer to the University, for Ric[hard] Davis, →OCLC, page 298:

     […] Sulphur, is not as much ſubjugated by the Form of the intire Body, as that of the purgative portion of Rhubarb, by the Form of that Drugg.

   • 1862 July – 1863 August, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “After-thoughts”, in Romola. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1863, →OCLC, book II, page 29:

     [H]is love and his hatred were of that passionate fervour which subjugates all the rest of the being, and makes a man sacrifice himself to his passion as if it were a deity to be worshipped with self-destruction.

   • 1905, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Preface to Major Barbara: First Aid to Critics”, in John Bull’s Other Island and Major Barbara: Also How He Lied to Her Husband, London: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1907, →OCLC, Act, page 153:

     Mr [John Stuart] Stuart-Glennie regards the slave-morality as an invention of the superior white race to subjugate the minds of the inferior races whom they wished to exploit, and who would have destroyed them by force of numbers if their minds had not been subjugated.

4. To tame (an animal); to domesticate.
   • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “A Farther Enquiry Touching the End of the Formation of Man, so Far as the Same may be Collected by Natural Light and Ratiocination”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC, section IV, page 371:

     Though of all other viſible Creatures Man ſeems the leaſt provided vvith natural offenſive Organs, yet by the advantage of his intellectual Faculty and that admirable Organum organorum his Hand, he is infinitely advantaged vvith artificial helps to defend himſelf, and ſubjugate the moſt contumacious and furious Brute: […]

   • 1831, John Epps, chapter VII, in The Life of John Walker, M.D., […], London: Whittaker, Treacher, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 191:

     [T]hou subjugatest or destroyest the beasts that would annoy thee, and convertest to thy use all their spoils, as well as all vegetable productions.

5. (figurative, obsolete, rare) To put (one's neck or shoulders) under a metaphorical yoke.
   • 1611, [attributed to Francis Burton], “A Post-script to the Wel Affected Reader”, in The Fierie Tryall of Gods Saints; […] as a Counter-poyze to I[ohn] W[ilsof] Priest His English Martyrologe. And the Detestable Ends of Popish Traytors: […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot and Thomas Creede] for Arthur Iohnson, →OCLC, page 9:

     Let ſuch Princes I ſay adhere to the Pope, & ſubiugate their neckes to his trampling, […]

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “subjugate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “subjugate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

subjugāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of subjugō